The Chopping Block Cooking & Wine Blog

Culinary Boot Camp as a Professional Training Tool

We always have a wide variety of students in each of our Culinary Boot Camp classes. From retirees who now have time to learn to cook to college students who want to get a jump start on life skills, ...

Is It Done Yet?

The most frequently asked question I get during our classes here at The Chopping Block is “How long should I cook this?” The students are usually referring to timing for cooking a meat or vegetable. ...

Culinary Boot Camp with Friends

It's not uncommon for couples to take cooking classes together, from date nights to wine classes to Culinary Boot Camp. We even had a proposal midway through one of the 5-day classes a couple of ...

Butchering Beef Revisited: Old Meat

If you read my previous post on breaking down a forequarter of beef you may recall that we put some pieces into a ramshackle dry aging chamber so that they could age for a bit before we cut them. ...

Classic Potatoes Anna Gets a Simpler Makeover

Cuisine doesn't get any more classical French than Potatoes Anna. This was one of the recipes included in Auguste Escoffier's cookbook published in 1902 and named "Pommes de Terre Anna." If you ...

Find your Adventure in Culinary Boot Camp

Machelle Lind's Culinary Boot Camp class in May 2022 was a unique one. She traveled from Duluth, Minnesota to take the class and met a slew of different types of home cooks: an emergency room doctor ...

A World Traveler Chooses Culinary Boot Camp

It's not unusual for someone to travel across the country for our Culinary Boot Camp program. We've had students from California, Texas, New York, and lots of different places in the U.S. I know ...

What I’ve Learned from TCB Chefs

I’m no chef. I’m a pretty good cook, mostly due to the influence of my career in eating and drinking. Like most people, I have some sure-fire recipes for everyday and a few showstoppers. My Coq au ...

Saying I Do to Cooking Together Forever

Over the 24 years The Chopping Block has been open, we've seen a lot of people find love in our kitchens. I know of several couples who met during a cooking class who are still together today. Former ...

Crossroads Diner at Inspiration Kitchens

The first Crossroads Diner: At the Intersection of Hospitality & Community of 2020 takes a turn down memory lane, back to my high school days. A relatively unsupervised 3-month summer stay in ...